Welcome to edition 6 of the Happier People in Tech blog series! Today we take a closer look at how to become happier at work. Your key to happiness at work lies in your wellbeing.

There is said it. That buzzword "wellbeing". Everyone is talking about it, but what does that actually mean? What is wellbeing for you? How do you know if you have enough of it? Or too little?

Let's unpack the concept of wellbeing to understand what that really means - and most importantly: to give you a recipe of what you can do to have a positive impact on your wellbeing and the wellbeing of the people around you.

1 Positive Strategy

Your wellbeing is the key to become happier at work

To become happier at work, you need to create more wellbeing at work. The PERMA model is an evidence-based wellbeing model co-developed by the founding father of positive psychology: Martin Seligman. It highlights that wellbeing is not a one-size-fits-all approach. In fact, wellbeing is a multi-dimensional construct. It also is not stable but fluctuates over time. There are different elements of your lived experience that influence your wellbeing:

P - Positive Emotions: all the activities that make you feel good, either done in solitude or with others.

E - Engagement: all activities that make you lose track of time when you get fully absorbed in a task. These can happen at work or in your free time. Often these flow activities are connected to creativity or mastering a new skill.

R - Positive Relationships: spending time with people who make you feel seen, heard and understood. When spending time with these special people, you always feel recharged and energised.

M - Meaning: all activities that provide a sense of fulfilment, meaning and purpose.

A - Accomplishment: things you do that you get praised for by others - or by yourself.

All of these dimensions impact your wellbeing. That is important! Because that means if you don't feel at your best right now, you have 5 areas to work with to make a positive difference. And if one area is not very strong for you at the moment, you can still experience high levels of wellbeing when you work on the other 4.

Review your wellbeing at work

Use the PERMA model to review your status quo at work. Use these prompts to guide your reflection:

What wellbeing area works well for me right now?

What wellbeing area is coming a bit short? And why?

What can I change to bring more balance across all wellbeing dimensions?

If something comes a bit short at work but is outside of your control, ask yourself:

What can you do more of in your free time to balance your wellbeing across different life domains?

1 Research Highlight

The double-positive effect of innovative wellbeing interventions

Wellbeing interventions can be cost-effective and easy to incorporate in the busyness of corporate life. My area of expertise are positive psychology interventions (PPIs) that target wellbeing and job satisfaction in the workplace by promoting resilience, stress management and mental fitness.

An influential meta-analysis highlights the double-positive effect of implementing positive psychology interventions in your organisation: Not only do they increase desirable work outcomes like wellbeing, job performance and job satisfaction. They also decrease undesirable work outcomes including turnover intent, job-related stress and work avoidance.

One tailored wellbeing intervention - double the positive effect for your workforce!

This is one example of valuable research from positive psychology that hasn't made it into a lot of organisations yet. If wellbeing is high on your company's agenda, I want to work with you! Contact me directly to make this happen.

1 Random Wisdom

“Wellbeing cannot exist just in your own head. Wellbeing is a combination of feeling good as well as actually having meaning, good relationships and accomplishment.”

Martin Seligman - Founding Father of Positive Psychology

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